Air quality is fine in Thailand as Thais say Chinese are exaggerating

[webfact]

Air quality is fine in Thailand as Thais say Chinese are exaggerating

 

Picture: Thai News Agency

 

The Department of Pollution control have said that dust in the air is normal for this time of the year and is just the result of still air in the cool season.

 

They have said a Chinese website who claimed it was dangerous have overstated the risks.

 

While admitting that it was a bit unhealthy and that those with respiratory problems might be more at risk, Talerngsak Petchsuwan played down any risks.

 

Picture: Thai News Agency

 

He said that it was all relatively normal for this time of the year. In 2016-17 the worst point was February - it came earlier in January this year because of the effect of cool season fluctuations.

 

Normal people would not have any problems he said as he criticized the Chinese air quality website "Worldwide Air Quality" for following a US based assessment system that exaggerated the problems.

 

If the Thai system was used it was all quite safe.

 

The Chinese claimed that levels were three times the level of safety of particulate in the air which was overstating the case, said Talerngsak who had plenty of graphs to back up his assertions in the TNA report.

 

Source: Thai News Agency

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2018-02-13

[badischer Barde]

Honestly, if the Chinese say your air quality is bad you should worry.

[davehowden]

" If the Thai system was used it was all quite safe. "

 

[ChrisY1]

6 minutes ago, davehowden said:

" If the Thai system was used it was all quite safe. "

 

Such a classic Thai statement

[arithai12]

Except that PM2.5 isn't dust, it's primarily from pollution and can be quite nasty for your lungs. But not for Talerngsak's lungs probably, since I suspect he never spends much time outdoors.

[davehowden]

10 minutes ago, ChrisY1 said:

Such a classic Thai statement

Do they all attend the same course on "How to Appear Stupid" I wonder?

[eliotness]

You only have to see the smoke/haze in the dawn sky and the red sun to know that all is not good in the air.

[Ahab]

Where I live it has been "snowing" black ash on and off over the last couple of months. Nothing to see here, can we next see the graphs on how road fatalities are also not an issue?

 

[SoilSpoil]

The ignorance is stunning. Thailand in a nutshell, Im afraid. 

[Thailand]

Uttered from the mouths of babes.

 

Forgive them, they know not what they say.

[Darcula]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

If the Thai system was used it was all quite safe.

 

Yeah, time for the rest of the world to reinstall Windows 95.

[Chippy151]

I'm surprised this story didn't come out a lot sooner.

[coulson]

Lol, the Chinese commenting on overseas air quality, must be a problem so!

[salween]

Amazing we have to rely on China to get the truth out. Thainess in a nutshell, as real-time data's available for all--journalists too should they choose to look beyond what the government puts out.  Have not seen PM2.5 below 125 in BKK since I started looking last week--and anything above 25 is supposed to be unhealthy, should one accept WHO standards?

[johng]

 
Yeah, time for the rest of the world to reinstall Windows 95.

Windows 3.8.... may be closer to the claimed Thailand 4.0 [emoji107]

[Lingba]

2 hours ago, ChrisY1 said:

Such a classic Thai statement

what a stinkin joke...bury your heads in the sand

[Dibbler]

This is the air quality in downtown Bangkok now http://aqicn.org/city/bangkok/

And this is the air quality in Chiang May now http://aqicn.org/city/chiang-mai/

And this is the air quality in Beijing now http://aqicn.org/city/beijing/

The Chinese are NOT lying! Bangkok air has almost three times the PM count and is UNHEALTHY.  GoT needs to take action not ignore facts!

[alex8912]

2 hours ago, davehowden said:

" If the Thai system was used it was all quite safe. "

 

He also stated the Thai system is accurate 117% of the time. 

[DoctorG]

27 minutes ago, Lingba said:

what a stinkin joke...bury your heads in the sand

You can actually breathe better air if you do that. 

[simoh1490]

This is very positive, a country like China, upon whom Thailand's tourist industry depends quite heavily, making noises about the poor air quality here, it could be the catalyst to make Thailand take some action. We'll overlook of course the hypocrisy whereby there are some cities in China I wouldn't even enter without a bio-hazard suit but that's another story!

[PhonThong]

If the air is so safe. Then why has the government ordered this?

 

Seeding the skies over Bangkok to ‘make’ rain to help with smog

[simoh1490]

Just now, PhonThong said:

If the air is so safe. Then why has the government ordered this?

 

Seeding the skies over Bangkok to ‘make’ rain to help with smog

Source?

[rodney earl]

Yea. Right.!!

[klauskunkel]

36 minutes ago, simoh1490 said:

Source?

ThaiVisa today's news

[yooper]

3 hours ago, davehowden said:

" If the Thai system was used it was all quite safe. "

 

would my scratchy throat also disappear?

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Sigh: 

 

1. It's not "The Chinese" who are saying anything.  Chinese tourists are quite happy and indeed conditions in most of China are *FAR* worse than Thailand.  What this article is about is the international air quality site, aqicn.org, which is based in Beijing and has contributors globally. 

 

2. The main good thing about aqicn.org is that it takes data from all over the world, including the Thai-government-supplied data from Thailand, and converts it all to the US EPA AQI Index.  This makes comparisons very easy.

 

3. Thailand has both an older PM10 standard (that's not very strict) as well as a newer PM2.5 based standard that matches the US EPA scale very well and is very strict.   This new standard is not yet used throughout Thailand, also because most measuring stations don't have a PM2.5 capability which would lead to comparing apples and oranges, so they stick with the old standard for now.  However they make the PM2.5 data available in near real-time for anyone who wants to use it, such as indeed aqicn.org, NGO's like Greenpeace (who manage to still compare apples and oranges) and a range of mobile apps.   Note: the Thai government app from the PCD departement only uses PM10: don't use it.)

 

4. The government is correct in saying that conditions are pretty normal.  Note that 'Normal' does not mean 'Healthy'. Not in English and not in Thai.  It means that it's very similar to past years, going back 20 years. 

 

Read up or shut up, and that applies to The Nation as well. 

[trainman34014]

As i've said before....In the Land of Denial, truth is a lost soul !

[YetAnother]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

If the Thai system was used it was all quite safe.

what a foolish man; in the ground-breaking documentary 'Under the Dome' (air quality in China) it was likely the number 1 point that PM 2.5 should be the focus; 

the 'thai system' does not focus on and consistently, across-the-board  report on 2.5;

thus the 'thai system' is inferior

[YetAnother]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

dust in the air is normal for this time of the year

why do thais constantly revert to this way-of-thinking ?

the point is not that the dry season is worse than the wet season; that is typical thai 'relative thinking';

the point is whether it is dangerous , 'absolute thinking'

[uffe123]

To busy spending billions on bullet trains that only the rich can afford to ride, but no money to put scrubbers on coal fire power plant smoke stacks, or money to clean up the air. But the government as stated will tell you the air is the cleanest/best in the world, that is why 50K people die from respiratory  problems in Bangkok every year. Just drive behind one of those dump trucks spewing out tons of black soot/smoke. Yeah that is clean/ air.